Monday 22 September 2008

Chronophage and Relative Time

This is a video in which John Taylor briefly describes the working of the Corpus Clock. 

Fascinating. 
Here's a question for you guys, why the pendulum? Is there any need for it?

 

6 comments:

Markkimarkkonnen said...

The pendulum is how it's keeping track of time. Clocks work by counting the occurrences of a very regular phenomenon. In a mechanical clock, the regular occurrence is a pendulum swinging back and forth. The grasshopper and the dials are just there to count how many times the pendulum has ticked. Each time the pendulum swings past the middle point, the grasshopper escapement is allowed to slide forward one slot.

Nik said...

But you don't need a pendulum at the bottom in a grass hopper escapement, do you? The weights that cause the movement of the escapement are on top within the Chronophage itself. Thus making the pendulum redundant unless of course they worked it into the mechanical system. Though, I don't see much point in doing that.

Markkimarkkonnen said...

yeah, you need it. the pendulum isn't there to make the escapement move. it's there to tell the escapement when to go. without the pendulum, there is nothing left with an innate periodicity. that escapement mechanism is capable of running at different speeds, but the pendulum keeps it running at the correct speed.

Anonymous said...

not fascinating... weird... :/

Radhika Saxena said...

ughh.. Don't even expect me to see that okay!

Anonymous said...

very interesting. would make a good conversation point in my drawing room.
ps--i think i'm sleepy.